3rd October 2022

 Weather: SE force 3    partly cloudy

After the Yellow-browed Warbler yesterday, the best bird ringed today was inevitably an anti-climax. Normally a Blackcap is regular fare in the autumn but today it seemed special because of the paucity of warblers at Hilbre so far this autumn.

On the bright side, although no star bird was found there was a greater variety of species recorded today, including a Reed Bunting, a Redpoll, a Grey Wagtail, several Meadow Pipits moving, a couple of Skylarks and a late Wheatear which arrived mid-morning and moved down the west side of the island.

Wrens in double figures were calling all over the island and there were 6 Robins, 5 Blackbirds and 2 Song Thrushes, with up to 8 Rock Pipits. Larger species adding to the mix were single Common Snipe and Greenshank, a Goosander flying west across the south end and a Raven flying towards the mainland.

Mid-morning a real surprise was a Manx Shearwater found close off the north end.

It obviously had some sort of problem as it seemed to be in difficulty when trying to lift off from the sea.

and at one stage was hassled by a Herring Gull.

Eventually it drifted out passed the north end to the west. 

A Guillemot was also close in to the island in the same area. A new high count for the season of 87 Brent gathered on the whaleback this morning making it easy to count them for a change. There were no large numbers of waders on the low tide during the day, but 10 Bar-tailed Godwits, 35 Sanderling, 28 Turnstone and 50 Redshank were about in addition to the Greenshank heard calling. Of the 17 Carrion Crows recorded a flock of 10 were moving south and 3 west. The Kestrel was still hunting the island. A Red Admiral flew when the temperature rose slightly later in the day.

Photos CJ, SRW